You may have heard the term ‘microaggression’. It means a very small act of aggression. Read more
It has been a terrible couple of weeks. Assessing and costing cyclone damage from Northland to Wairarapa, but especially in Hawke’s Bay, will take months. Read more
Environment Minister David Parker’s Resource Management law reform proposals have been a long time in the making. The trio of Bills Parker proposes to replace the much-maligned Resource Management Act date back to the work of a government task force established in 2019. Read more
Chris Bishop asked an excellent question during last week’s Select Committee hearings into the government’s proposed Natural and Built Environment Act. “Where does local democracy stop and the legitimate …national interest kick in?” The question cuts to the heart of one of the debates around resource management reform. Read more
A new broom sweeps clean. For Chris Hipkins, New Zealand’s new Prime Minister, this saying could not be more apt. Read more
The December 2022 inflation figures are out, and the news is not particularly good. While most bank economists expected annual inflation to fall in Q4, it remained at 7.2%, so inflation has plateaued rather than decreased. Read more
Considering Chris Hipkins’ reputation as a policy wonk, this week’s ‘bonfire of policies’ is quite remarkable. Commentators have interpreted the Prime Minister’s clean-up as a dumping of unpopular policies ahead of the election. Read more
The UK Financial Times opined in late December that the biggest casualty of 2022 was the reputation of big central banks. Central banks failed to forecast the rise in inflation caused by easy money. Read more
Peaches come from a can. They were put there by a man. Read more
It’s no secret that New Zealand’s compulsory education system is in disarray. Even worse, it’s hard to know where to begin to enact reform. Read more
It is hard enough to understand the Germans in the best of times. Yet, in these times of crisis and war, even a native speaker may find it difficult to comprehend them. Read more
When the government says reducing living costs is its highest priority, it seems a bit crazy to impose punitive anti-dumping duties on imports. And yet, here we are. Read more
At 11:59pm on Sunday, submissions close on Environment Minister David Parker’s Natural and Built Environment Bill. One minute to midnight on the Sunday of Waitangi weekend is a strange deadline for submissions on a once-in-a-generation proposal to reform the Resource Management Act. Read more
For all those who were hoping that the state would finally get tough on hate, the government’s dialling down of its ambitious hate speech reforms must have come as a crushing disappointment. All is not lost, though. Read more
A logical fallacy is an invalid element in an argument. There are many kinds of fallacies. Read more